Steel wrist 19/11/09 3:10 pm Page 1
ATTACHMENTS
High-definition
digging Graham Black reports on the latest tilt-
rotator hitch manufacturer to enter the
UK market, a concept that has already
proved its worth in railway maintenance
applications and is increasingly being
S
wedish-based tilting and rotating hitch manufacturer Steelwrist has set up
a UK sales and support arm, headed by Pat Bulcock. Steelwrist morphed specified by knowledgeable muck-shifting
from the Denteo company that in 1986 was producing bucket teeth, then
progressed into quick couplers. It is one of the Scandinavian companies that owner-operators.
pioneered the development of tilting and rotating hitches for excavators. In
2005 the company was re-branded by new owners and today its hitches are offering and products from the UK market leader Engcon is the split of weight
manufactured in a modern factory near Stockholm. classifications of the various models. To illustrate this point, the demonstration
Its range of tilting and rotating hitch attachments looks a fine system was set up on owner-operator Calvin Fuller's new 16-tonne Volvo EC160C
bit of Scandinavian design and engineering; the top half is a tracked excavator. It was fitted with a Steelwrist X18 unit weighing 390kg, which
heavy-duty fabrication, the bottom half is cast steel. Hitch is designed to fit 12- to 18-tonne excavators.
rotation is achieved by a conventional hydraulically- On paper, the Engcon options are either the 340kg EC15 model,
driven crown wheel and pinion, with bucket tilt designed for 12- to 16-tonne machines, or the 440kg EC20 model
controlled by external hydraulic rams. The Steelwrist designed for 16- to 22-tonne excavators. The height of both the
tilt-rotators allow a 45-degree angle of tilt to Steelwrist X18 and the heavier Engcon EC20 tilt-rotators is
either side, compared to the more usual 40 virtually the same, with the smaller EC15 model just 10mm
degrees. They are of a modular construction, shorter.
allowing an integrated hydraulic grab to be Of course such equations may well work in
fitted at a later date. Engcon's favour at other popular weight categories.
Perhaps the greatest area of The great advance that Steelwrist has made to tilt-
difference between the Steelwrist rotators in general is their new digital control
system, called XControl. To appreciate the full
Calvin Fuller's incredibly well- implications of this development, we must
specified Volvo EC160C review the other options.
includes three-piece front-
end equipment and a
Steelwrist tilting and
rotating hitch.
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Right: To get the most out of the system third- It is possible to use a tilt-rotator on an excavator with joystick control of the track motors, leaving an example, I speculate that XControl could be used as
party joysticks are really required, with built-in by plugging it into the hydraulic hammer circuit and uncluttered cab floor without any pedals or levers to part of a lift height restriction system. Fair enough,
sliding proportional controls. using a combination of pedals and additional control trip over. you'll still have to buy all the sensors and the like,
buttons glued to the joysticks. But you really have to As it is at the moment, XControl sits like a digital but you've already got one of the more complex
Far Right: The XControl user interface can be used factor in a couple of days of a specialist fitter's time parasite within the host excavator's electro- parts of the system installed; the interface to control
to store up to four separate operator preferences to wire it all up, and even then this set-up wouldn't hydraulic system, with the ability for the tilt-rotator's the host excavator.
and to adjust the operating parameters of the really do justice to what is a significant investment. brain to provide a simple gateway to control many For the vast majority of UK and Irish fleet
hitch. Simple on-off functionality of the various other functions of the excavator. Steelwrist's managers the thought of adding another 6 to 8% of
hydraulic controls of the tilt-rotator is not really development plans include an updated version that the cost of the base 16-tonne excavator by
Below and Bottom: Nordic pattern good enough to position the bucket accurately the will plug directly into the host excavator's CANBUS specifying a tilting and rotating bucket hitch is off-
buckets are ideally suited to tilting first time for really fine work, or to stack a pallet of digital nervous system, to become an integral part putting. However, for those operators who have
and rotating hitches, which supplies. Sliding proportional controls on the of the machine's intelligence network. mastered the system, the general opinion is that they
encourages an operating style joysticks allow the operator to get much more out of This development will open up a number of do not want to go back to a simple hinge joint at the
that carries the soil on the the attachment, by infinitely varying the speed rotators, but the really interesting thing about opportunities to upgrade the excavator at a reduced bucket, as they have experienced the advantages –
bucket, not in it. of the rotate and tilt functions. XControl is that, in theory, it can be programmed to cost, which will make the initial financial investment in everyday work – of a wrist action that can also tilt
Excavator manufacturers are increasingly manipulate a host of other electro-hydraulic in a tilt-rotator much easier to swallow. For and rotate the bucket or attachment.
offering more sophisticated joysticks as functions. For example, on a wheeled
standard, or as an optional extra. Hard excavator XControl could be used to
wiring the tilt-rotator's controls to the provide joystick steering, without the
excavator's own joysticks provides a manufacturer's expensive factory-
much more professional set-up, but fitted option. I was told
is often limited by the number of that the latest trend among
spare buttons on each joystick. Scandinavian operators is
In addition to the two proportional hitch rotate to have tracked excavators
and bucket tilt functions, there are other services to
control, including the quick-hitch, the optional
hydraulic grab and the hydraulic lock on the tilt-
rotator itself. These are in addition to any of the
excavator's standard functions that may be
controlled from buttons on the joysticks.
Those operators experienced with tilt-rotators
tend to opt for specialised third-party joysticks
when they get their next excavator, with a multitude
of buttons and proportional controls built in. By this
stage the tilt-rotator's in-cab control box is usually
best placed to take charge of controlling
proportional values, not the excavator.
What Steelwrist has done with XControl is to
take this a stage further, with a new digital
electro-hydraulic control system. This is
connected to the tilt-rotator by a single cable
and the tilt-rotator itself is powered by a pair of
simple one-way hydraulic supply lines, one in and
one out of the attachment.
It is a plug-and-play electronic system that is
apparently easy to install. The example provided Fair enough, owner-
was that in-cab power operators may not be able
connections consisted of a to charge a premium for this
single cable, with detailed more skilful approach, but the
instructions of where to plug increase in flexibility of man and
it into the machine's standard machine may increase the chances
fuse box. There was no slicing of the of the combination being the first on,
wiring loom in the hunt for a suitable and the last off, a site. Perhaps the best
live wire to power the various illustration of this is a wheeled excavator equipped
components. with a tilt-rotator with a set of pallet forks, in
So far so good. XControl addition to a range of buckets. Being able to
conforms to the SS10 standard accurately pick and place pallets could possibly
for the proportional control of tilt- save the cost of an additional telehandler and
operator on site.
Alternatively, a single machine could excavate a
trench, collect the pallet of pipes from the yard and,
by using an integrated hydraulic clamp, place the
pipes accurately in the trench. It would be masterful
at backfilling, and easily capable of producing a
finished grade in most circumstances.
The Steelwrist tilting and rotating hitch looks a
robust bit of Swedish engineering. An integrated
hydraulic grab can be easily added if required.
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Tilting and rotating hitches were originally rectangular blocks or layers at a fixed angle and set of fixed levers, then imagine the results if you
developed in Scandinavia, partly to reduce the orientation to the dipper arm. This produces a used your hand to excavate the material.
requirement for labourers. This was done for pixillated landscape; a tilt-rotator allows an Calvin Fuller, the owner-operator helping out at
environmental reasons – it gets very cold for experienced operator to create a flowing 3D high- the UK launch of Steelwrist, had an interesting
someone working outside – and for economic definition shape, without having to constantly observation to make. He's an experienced tilt-
reasons: the cost of local labour is high. These reposition. rotator user and has a number of attachments,
factors may not apply to UK and Irish job sites, but But why bother? In an intensive loading or including standard UK buckets, modified for use
the end result matches a drive on our job sites excavation application it is doubtful if a tilt-rotator with the Scandinavian hitch pattern. It was the first
towards having the minimum number of people in a would provide any real benefit, indeed it would be a time he had used a Nordic pattern bucket and he
trench and close to an excavator's bucket. hindrance. If I were a better operator, I could see expressed his surprise at just how well it had
myself digging a very neat standard grave from a complemented the tilt-rotator.
First impressions single location, a task that the vast majority of
standard mini-excavators cannot perform.
The bucket has chamfered corners and a long
toe; the material tends to sit on the bucket rather
I had a short while in the cab of a Volvo EC35C But doing such specialist tasks would not than in the back of it. In better conditions and with
equipped with a Steelwrist X04 tilt-rotator in very account for the popularity of such attachments in more experience, I could well imagine having better
sticky, wet clay. I'm no operator, but the first thing Scandinavia. As I sat in the cab, I imagined what it control if I needed to spread the material from the
that is apparent is that it is a fair weight to be would be like to put a pre-cast inspection pit into bucket, rather than simply dumping it.
slewing at full stretch over the side of the tracks, the ground. I don't really need a square hole and it One thing struck me when using the bucket in a
with a long bucket making things worse. My initial might prove beneficial to slope and flatten one side face shovel position. Normally you would reverse
ham-fisted warm-up saw a track lifting, until I of the excavation to allow easier access when it the bucket in a fixed quick-hitch to carry concrete
mentally reduced the working envelope of both man come to lifting and positioning the elements. and the like, but this puts the strain on the wrong
and machine. I might also want to build a specifically-shaped set of bucket pins. Rotating the bucket to accept
Focusing on using the attachment, the spoil heap as I go, or excavate a trench at an odd concrete keeps the strain on the set of bucket pins
integrated proportional sliding controls on the angle. This would be particularly useful if I was that were designed to carry the majority of the load.
custom joysticks felt intuitive to use and I quickly working tight in against a boundary line, but could
picked up the basics of how to control the various
movements of the bucket. Then I had to factor back
equally mean that I would have more freedom on
where to position the excavator in the first place.
Better insight
into the equation the standard bucket curl function, If I had pallet forks and a grab I really don't need This short spell at the controls gave me a better
then the movements of the dipper and boom, then the close support of a telehandler and I bet I could insight into what a couple of proper operators have
get my brain around how the relationship between save the expense and risk of another labourer on this said to me over the years; that it takes a couple of
bucket and soil would change as I slewed. Trying to job; the banksman and myself could handle the work. weeks of intensive after-hours practice, with no-one
work out how this relationship would change again Those operators with experience of working looking, before they can get their heads fully around
if I offset the boom made my head hurt. with titling and rotating bucket hitches excavate the concept. Not how it works – that's easy – but
The thing is that the working envelope of this differently to the norm. In many ways it is a more exactly what they can achieve by approaching the
combination does not consist of a series of natural movement, mimicking the full range of task in hand from a different perspective. But soon
movements of the human hand and wrist. Imagine they are constantly using the tilting and rotating
building a sandcastle with a spade at the end of a functions at work, not simply because they can, but
Learning how to operate because it is the best way to get the job done.
a tilt-rotator is one
thing. Figuring out
exactly what you can do
with this new-found
functionality is another.
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